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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Nintendo 3DS Details You Want Are Here

Early this morning, or should I say earlier in the day in Japan, Nintendo announced the details on Nintendo 3DS that all gamers have been waiting for including a release date, price, new features, and one hell of a lineup of games

Nintendo 3DS has many new features in comparison to Nintendo DSi. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata even went as far as saying that it is almost like a portable console in that it will have more features than any other 3D portable device being sold. It looks like a huge emphasis is being put onto tag mode, a feature seen on original DS titles like Nintendogs. In tag mode, players leave their DS or 3DS in sleep mode and when you walk by another player in tag mode, data will be exchanged whether that is ranks or items or practically anything. The difference here is that tag mode is native to the hardware rather than the game. Tag mode now works for multiple games at once so you can have tag mode happen in a game even when it is not in your 3DS. Examples of this are in games like Ridge Racer 3D where stats are exchanged or in the game Love Plus where characters can gossip with characters on another 3DS in the area. When you take your 3DS out of your pocket after a nice day out and notice a glowing white light in the top right corner of the screen, this indicates that tag mode occurred.

Another cool feature is the Mii Studio. Now you do not even have to create a Mii from scratch. Just use the 3DS's camera to take a picture of yourself and then that image of you will turn into a Mii. Images of your Miis can also be saved to an SD card and shared anywhere. In addition, the 3DS's home buttons works a lot like the home buttons on other systems such as the Xbox 360 and PS3 where it will take you back to the main menu without forcing you to leave your game. Nintendo 3DS will still have many of the DSi's features like photo editing and web browsing. In addition, Nintendo 3DS will offer 3D television streaming. The final new feature that was announced is that there will be a store similar to the Virtual Console where you can buy old Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles as well as 3D revamps of titles, much like the ones shown at E3. I would guess Game Boy Advance titles are also included but I keep hearing mixed things so I am unclear on whether Game Boy Advance titles will be available. Most of these features can be seen in the video below.

Now for the launch details you have been waiting for. Each Nintendo 3DS will come with a 2GB SD card and the 3DS will come in two colors, Aqua Blue (shown above) and Cosmo Black. It will release in Japan on February 26, 2011 for ¥25,000 which in US dollars is about $298. Nintendo 3DS will launch in North America and Europe in March 2011. More details will be provided at a later date by the respective branches.

In terms of software, check out the video below for more details. See everything from Kid Icarus, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendogs + Cats, Resident Evil, Professor Layton, Metal Gear Solid, Super Street Fighter IV 3D, and tons more.